Yesterday I got the notice that I'll be joining bloggers from around the world as an official correspondent for the MAGIC Market Week trade shows. MAGIC is the largest fashion convention/tradeshow in the world. In a nutshell, every site or store you shop at sends their buyers to the MAGIC shows to meet with designers and hand-pick what will show up on the shelves that you'll shop from in upcoming seasons. Thank you to everyone who sent a tweet out last week supporting my campaign to get to MAGIC, and to all those who read and support Fresh Jess on the regular.

Nailing this campaign means so much more to me than just my next fun brand partnership. When I started my blog, the only goal I had was to hopefully have people (I didn't know) reading and learning from what I had to share. FJ is a lot of hard work, and for the bulk of these last five years, was more a labor of love than a means to provide for myself. That balance between hobby and profession has been leaning more and more towards 'profession' lately, and I spend a lot of time obsessing on how I can be a better blogger. Not just improving my traffic, but constantly asking myself questions like:

How are people responding to me?

What are people sharing from Fresh Jess?

How can I differentiate myself?

How can I partner with brands?

How can I make money but in way(s) that feel natural to me?

How can I be a better writer, yet convey the most authentic and honest version of me as possible?

I knew more than anything that I wanted Fresh Jess to help put Seattle on the radar. As a lifestyle blogger with a strong focus on fashion and style, it can be real hard to get the attention of brands from a market that isn't a hotbed for them. Seattle is great and home to the biggest retailer in the world (what up Amazon), but we still have yet to get a Zara. We will never be New York or L.A., and for that, fashion types don't often have a reason to partner with bloggers from up here. I've worked hard to change the outside perception of Seattle as a viable market, and as an overall amazing place to be.

That's why I was pretty much in tears when I got the email yesterday about being a MAGIC blogger. After seeing some of my favorite fashion bloggers cover the shows, speak on panels and interview designers in seasons past, I wondered how I could be part of the action. I wanted to represent Seattle in the midst of one of the biggest fashion gatherings of the year. Less than a year later, here I am with that very opportunity at my hands. These are tears of pride and accomplishment. Hard work absolutely pays off. Now more than ever, I am proud of the work that I've done here on Fresh Jess and know there is so much more in store for me and this site.

Stay tuned for more info on what I'll be up to at MAGIC, and what to follow while we're there. I'm so excited and can't wait to be a part of it.